


Red

by aethyn



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 11:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1685960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aethyn/pseuds/aethyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night Kano returns home and torments Shintaro, his actions are noticed by another.</p>
<p>A modified retelling of a plot event from the novels.  Consequently, novel spoilers ahoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red

He’d held a level of resentment for that idiot in the red jacket before he ever even knew his name.

Shintaro Kisaragi - an intelligent boy, maybe, but twice as stupid as he was smart. For whatever reason, his sister had developed an interest in that idiot years ago. He had weaseled his way into a small part of their family’s lives.

Well, small to everyone else, at least.

For Kano, it was different. For quite some time, Ayano had asked Kano to stand in for her at school. He hadn’t been so sure about the idea at first, but she insisted that she had something she needed to do and only he could help her. The snake's words had resonated in his mind – keep on lying, hm? If he was going to be a liar one way or another, he may as well do it to his sister's benefit.

Kano spent weeks - months, even - impersonating Ayano at school. All this exposure to Shintaro had only served to intensify his misgivings. Certainly, at first, he had taken it as an opportunity: maybe he’d be able to learn something unscrupulous he could use as blackmail later. In the back of his mind, he thought he might get a sense of what his sister liked about the boy. But he was first and foremost a liar, and liars are always very interested in secrets.

In spite of his initial optimism, he’d never found anything of the sort. In fact, his resentment only grew. Each and every day, Shintaro would berate him for any number of things and Kano simply had to take all of his negativity in stride and return it with Ayano’s brand of kindness, understanding, and contradictorily cheery displays of self-deprecation. In this way, he also began to understand what she might have been feeling - what might have been going on in her head.

But it wasn’t enough. Worse yet, it was enough, but he was mere moments too slow to understand exactly what it meant. On the rooftop that fateful day – all he could do was watch. Watch, scream, and cry. And he did, he did with all his might, but his futile protests proved all for naught as she took that last step off the edge of the building.

The guilt weighed heavily upon him. He understood that what she’d done had been necessary. He could see now that it had even been for his own sake. Not solely for him, mind you – it was for all of the people she had cared about. For all of the people Mom had cared about. For all of the people who had loved them in return, those who had become so important to each other. Yet there was one among their number who didn't necessarily belong – one who failed to prove that he deserved the love he received. Not even for the one who’d cleaned up after his messes; who’d been his only friend for so long.

Kano had disliked Shintaro at first as the brother of a girl with a crush. He wanted to make sure that whoever it was had been good enough to welcome into the family that had welcomed him in when he had nothing. The family that had shared so much warmth where he had been so cold for so long.

Now, Kano hated Shintaro as the murderer of his precious sister. It wasn’t fair - he knew that much. It wasn’t as though he’d pulled the trigger and shot her dead. Even so, he couldn’t help but wonder if his sarcasm and his poor treatment of her had contributed to her final decision. He’d wondered if his negligence had a greater impact on her well being than anyone had realized. It wasn’t true and it wasn’t fair, and yet he couldn’t help but pin the blame for her death squarely at his feet.

So now, when the deceiver looked upon the sleeping face of the one he’d come to hate so much, he couldn’t help but want a little taste of revenge.

He’d taken on the appearance of the fool’s sister at first, hoping to disarm him a little. It worked for a brief moment, but fool as he was, he still had the mental acuity to quickly see through such a shoddy deception. After all, Kano hadn’t known Momo for very long, and knew even less about the siblings’ relationship.

It didn’t matter much, anyway. After all, he’d shut himself in his room for two whole years in response to her death - what else could that be if not guilt? And so no matter how obvious his next deception was, Shintaro wasn’t ready for it. If he’d continued as he had been for the last two years, he likely would have never been ready to see Ayano’s face again. Without much more than a word, he’d collapsed onto the floor and lost consciousness. Kano delighted in the idea that he'd be suffering the worst nightmares of his life.

Though he might have liked to gloat to himself about his victory, a clever fox knows to cover his tracks. He’d lifted Shintaro’s pathetic form back to his place on the couch, letting out a small sigh. He felt a small pang of guilt - not for the sorry shut-in, but for the other victim resting on that couch. That boy hadn’t deserved the fate that befell him - and certainly not after the hardships he’d had to endure in his normal life.

As he turned to leave once more, Kano noticed a small sound. A small sobbing sound was coming from behind him. Fear teased his heart as he turned to face it. The figure was indiscernible for a moment in the dark, but it was certainly looking his way. As his eyes adjusted to the sight, it became apparent that the person was wearing a green jumpsuit, kneeling on the ground and holding back sobs as best he could, had one hand on the ground and the other on his face. Had the sight of his sister brought him to tears? The thought was dismissed the instant he noticed –

His irises were red.

The fear that Kano had felt before intensified fivefold. Seto must have seen everything - and not just seen, but felt everything. Every horrible piece of Kano’s grudge had been at the forefront of his mind. Every horrible memory he’d had of Shintaro’s mistreatment of their sister had resurfaced. Perhaps most importantly, the fear and desperation he’d felt when he’d helplessly watched Ayano take that last step into the snake’s embrace had fueled his desire to do something - and the outlet for all of those feelings had been his revenge on Shintaro.

To make matters worse, Kano knew that Seto’s power didn’t discriminate. It wasn’t just Kano’s own awful thoughts, memories, and feelings he would have seen. Shintaro no doubt had feelings of his own - guilt so powerful that he had collapsed at the mere sight of her. That had been Kano’s intention all along, of course, but he never intended for Seto to feel that weight.

Really, no matter how old he got, Kano thought, he always seemed to find a way to be troublesome to those important to him.

But they were older now and being troublesome meant something different than it used to. It wasn’t going to end with a slap and a scolding, and he couldn’t avoid the consequences of his actions by asking for a hard punch.

With a sly and somber smile, Kano took a seat on the floor next to the crying boy.

“Hey, Seto. Do you remember what she said about the color of our eyes?”

Seto’s sobs no longer had a voice, but he turned his bloodshot eyes to meet Kano’s. As their eyes met, Seto’s eyes quickly regained their usual hue. It was a rhetorical question, of course. The memory of the founding moments of the Mekakushi Dan were etched into all of their minds. Not actually wanting him to answer, Kano continued quickly.

“Red is the hero's color!” the blond boy threw his voice and took the nostalgic pose Ayano had held as she spoke those words. “Oh~ That makes you the most heroic. Your eyes are always the most red!” Kano’s teasing voice and smile of questionable integrity were accompanied by his fingers wiping away some of the other boy’s tears. “After all, you cry the most!”

His soft chuckle was interrupted by a gentle blow to the side. He let out an exaggerated expression of pain – Kano's ploy had successfully lifted the mood just a little. Seto’s choked sobs were replaced with half a smile and silent laughter. They still needed to be mindful of the sleeping members of the house, but neither of them had much energy anyway.

Kano’s soft smile stiffened a bit as he spoke again.

“Do you think he’s a hero?” the words accompanied by a vague motion in Shintaro’s direction. “His jacket's the right color. She picked it out for him, did you know that?” Seto shook his head, seemingly unable to speak just yet. 

“Well, maybe he is red after all. Bu~t … I don't think his red is very heroic at all. The red on his hands … Well, maybe it's not just a hero's color after all, hm?”

Looking for affirmation, he turned to face Seto again. But, contrary to his expectations, the fox boy was greeted with a smile – a smile he had only seen a handful of times before. Every time, that smile had meant Seto knew something that he didn’t. He spoke for the first time, his every word still tinted with a tremble.

“There’s one more thing red can stand for.” The last time, too, it had been a smile in the midst of tears. It had been the time he'd professed his —

“Love.”

Seto took a moment to wipe away the last of the tears still trickling down his face. There was a certain kind of beauty in both the vulnerable expression he’d been wearing and in the strength shining through his new smile, Kano thought. Maybe that's what had disarmed him enough to admit that he'd felt something, too.

“The kind that Mom and Sis had for us - the kind that we should share with all of our new family.” Seto glanced at the couches the boys were sleeping on. Then, his eyes wandered around the room, pausing on the doorways to Mary’s room, Kido’s - where Momo was also asleep - before finally locking his gaze on Kano. “So, please —“

“Alright, alright,” A good liar knew when his bluff had been called. He sighed loudly while shrugging his shoulders in defeat. A good liar also knew how to tell people what they wanted to hear. “I’ll take it easy on him from now on.” It was as close of an admission of defeat as he was capable of. “But, for tonight, you should rest.”

“And … Seto?” Their eyes locked, with Kano donning the most sincere expression he was capable of.

“No matter what it looks like...” he paused for a moment, closing his eyes as though he was hiding his own words from himself. “Everything I do is for the family you love so much. For my sisters,” his eyes open now, he held one hand over his heart and outstretched the other in the direction of Kido’s room, “and for my most precious brother.” His lips pressed against the bare forehead exposed by the boy’s hairclip.

Stunned from such a blatant display of affection from a boy who had always been so coy, Seto simply watched as Kano got up and walked toward the front door. Pulling his black hood back up as he turned the doorknob, he took one last moment to face Seto.

With a single finger over a smirk and a wink as sly as his smile, the deceiver entered his element once more.


End file.
